This is my ongoing research with Dr. Minckley at the University of Wyoming for my MS Thesis.
Understanding how plant diversity shifts as a result of changes to the climate are critical to grasp the impact of current climate change on biodiversity. My goal is to construct a dataset the size of North America with pollen records dating back to the last interglacial period (115,000 years ago). The last interglacial period is an important period to study because it contains the last time the planet was warmer than it is today. By studying how the vegetation in North America changed during the warming then, we can better predict how it will change in the future. I will be looking at both the taxonomic and functional diversity of plant communities in different regions over time. Function diversity refers to the range of plant functional traits present within a community. By studying how the diversity changes we can better understand the different stressors involved as well as how the ecosystems restructured themselves.